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Man 'stabbed in a fit of jealousy'

First published
in News
by Joe Nimmo, Senior reporter. Call me on (01865) 425373

CONNOR Tremble was fatally stabbed by his girlfriend’s jealous ex-partner who was obsessed with knives, a jury was told.

Will Blencowe is accused of causing the 17-year-old’s death in a “vicious attack” after taking a taxi to his flat in Fairacres Road, Iffley Fields, on February 13 this year.

Richard Barton, prosecuting in Oxford Crown Court yesterday, said the 21-year-old planned his crime and then conspired with two friends to try to escape justice.

He told the jury that according to his ex-girlfriend, Blencowe, who denies murder, owned a machete and a switchblade and used to pose for pictures with his weapons.

Opening the case, Mr Barton said the defendant did not even know his alleged victim and had to ask a mutual friend where he lived.

He said: “This case concerns how a troubled young man had wholly unwarranted feelings of jealousy and resentment towards his former girlfriend’s new partner.

“And these feelings led him, after some planning on his part, to track down and stab to death that young man.

“And after he fatally wounded the young man he fled the scene in what was in effect an attempt to avoid detection.

“During that evening he met up with two close friends who knowingly assisted him to avoid detection and prosecution for that vicious attack.”

The barrister said the first witness to give evidence in the trial will be Aimee Harrison, the woman who was going out with Tremble after her relationship with Blencowe ended.
Mr Barton said: “She will say that Will Blencowe displayed a short temper, that he was jealous of anyone who showed an interest in her.
“She will tell you that she found his behaviour towards her a great strain on their relationship.
“She was aware that Will Blencowe carried and regularly posed with a range of knives. To her he seemed obsessed with these weapons.”
Mr Barton said Blencowe told Miss Harrison she should “just tell (Connor) to run” if he saw him coming.
And the barrister added that on the afternoon of February 13, Blencowe, who the court heard suffers from mental health problems, said to his key worker Karen Yearde he would soon be “dead or in jail”.
He then left the Banbury Response Project where he lived in Oxford Road, Banbury, and travelled to Fairacres Road, Oxford, first by train and then by taxi.
Mr Barton said that in a “terrible coincidence” the front door of Connor’s flat had just been painted and he had been told to leave it open to dry.
The prosecutor said no one witnessed what happened inside at around 6.30pm, but the teenager’s flatmate Kyle Martin heard him screaming.

The flat where the stabbing took place
He then found Connor on the carpet bleeding and repeating “I’m dying”, with injuries suggesting “the frenzied, repeated use of a knife”, Mr Barton said.
Blencowe’s co-defendants are accused of helping him dispose of the clothes he was wearing which, along with the alleged murder weapon, have never been found.
Bradley Jones, 21, of New Road, Bledington, and Grant Clemens, 23, of Stockwells, Moreton-in-Marsh, are also alleged to have helped him get a lift to Stratford-upon-Thames, where he was arrested on February 14.
They both deny perverting the course of justice.
Mr Barton said that when he was told by police he was being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Blencowe repeated “attempted murder” and giggled.
Connor died of his injuries in hospital on February 15.
The trial continues.

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